Panos Kefalos

Saints

Best Black & White Picture

From the series Saints by Panos Kefalos.

Gomma Grant 2016 Best Black & White Picture.

" This project started in the fall of 2012, when my involvement in a unrelated work brought me to Victoria Square, the first of the neighborhoods of Athens that I documented for ''saints''. In this early stages my goal was to capture the everyday life of the children that worked and played on the square. As we became close and spent more and more time together, I came to know their parents, their family and friends, and I was welcomed into their homes, adding a new crucial element for a deeper and more comprehensive exploration of their world.

This new dimension of the work took me to the refugee building complex in Leoforos Alexandras, where most of them lived. Thanks to the trust they so generously showed me, I was able to witness closely many of the different sides of their hard life. When our acquaintance grew into a sincere and beautiful friendship, and our mutual trust grew with it, I was admitted to more intimate aspects of their private life, such as their relationship with religion, and I was invited to witness their religious observances and practices and their places of worship.

The last stage of the project took me to the Pedion tou Areos Park, where the homeless refugees were provided a provisional housing under very difficult conditions, during the refugee crisis of August 2015.
" PK